In a logical architecture system of an enhanced packet switch (EPS) mobile communications network, a user equipment (UE) accesses a mobile communications network by using a radio access network, an access node is a convergence point of the radio access network, a serving gateway is a local access gateway of the UE, and a data gateway is a gateway for the UE to access an external data network. After resetting occurs on a network node such as the access node, the serving gateway, or the data gateway, user information on the reset network node, such as information about a UE context, a Packet Data Protocol (PDP) context, and a packet data network (PDN) connection context, may be lost. If a network connection of the UE that is affected by the resetting of the network node cannot be re-established in time, after a downlink packet of the UE reaches the reset network node, the reset network node may discard the packet because the packet is not corresponding to specific user information.
At present, a method of network connection re-establishment performed due to resetting of a network gateway is mainly as follows: if resetting occurs on a serving gateway, after a data gateway learns that the serving gateway is reset, the data gateway selects a serving gateway and sends a downlink packet notification message to the serving gateway, the serving gateway selected by the data gateway forwards the downlink packet notification message to an access node, and the access node re-selects a serving gateway and performs a serving gateway switching procedure, and re-establishes a UE context on the new serving gateway, to implement network connection re-establishment; or, if resetting occurs on a data gateway, after a serving gateway learns that the data gateway is reset, the serving gateway sends a data gateway resetting notification message to an access node, and the access node initiates a PDP deactivation procedure, a PDN connection deletion procedure, or a detach procedure to trigger a user equipment to re-establish a PDP or PDN connection, to implement network connection re-establishment.
A reset detection mechanism may be not timely, so that a part of downlink data of cannot reach the UE. In an actual network, a serving gateway and a data gateway are usually integrated, and when the serving gateway or the data gateway is reset, the other gateway is also reset. Therefore, the foregoing method cannot implement network connection re-establishment in a situation in which the serving gateway and the data gateway are integrated.